Chinese Firm Plans $1.3 Billion Purchase Of Texas Oil Lands

NPR ^ | October 25, 2015 | BRAKKTON BOOKER

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

The Shanghai-listed Yantai Xinchao Industry Co. filed a security filing over the weekend announcing it would purchase Texas oil properties for 8.3 billion yuan. AFP/AFP/Getty Images

A Chinese investment holding company intends to put down stakes in the United States after signing a letter of intent to purchase oil properties in western Texas for $1.3 billion through a limited liability partnership.

The Shanghai-listed Yantai Xinchao Industry Co., said in a securities filing over the weekend, it was a purchasing oil lands in the Texas counties of Howard and Borden as part of the proposed acquisition of Ningbo Dingliang Huitong Equity Investment Center, according to the Associated Press.

The news service also reports Yantai Xinchao said in its letter of intent, the transaction, worth 8.3 billion yuan, has been "approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States" which is part of the Treasury Department.

The oil properties are being purchased from Tall City Exploration LLC and Plymouth Petroleum LLC, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Neither Tall City Exploration or ArcLight Capital Partners LLC, the parent company of Plymouth Petroleum, returned requests for comment by the time of this posting. We will update if things change.

The Wall Street Journal also reports Chinese energy companies have been longing to do business in the U.S. because of "stable laws governing oil exploration and production." The publication adds:

"But U.S. restrictions on Chinese investment in potentially sensitive areas means investment in the U.S. energy patch by Chinese companies is, to date, limited. Yantai Xinchao said it had already received permission from the U.S. government for the deal.

...

"Chinese companies are looking abroad for oil deals partly because of tight restrictions at home, making investment in oil-and-gas exploration and production next to impossible in many cases. State-owned oil behemoths dominate China's energy landscape, leaving little space for independent companies to invest. China's government says it aims to bring more private capital into the oil sector as part of ongoing reforms."

[familyop]

I wish I did. ;-)

[lentulusgracchus]

Dubya vetoed, iirc, a proposed Chicom (think it was CNOOC) buyout of Union Cal, which owned big acreage Stateside as well as some big fields in the Gulf of Siam. That was about 18 years ago.

The Chinese did buy Nexen (formerly called Canadian Oxy) and got a big chunk of Athabaskan Tar Sands producing properties, plus other properties.

[lentulusgracchus]

I’ve lived in China. I give a sh!t we are giving them the future.

The only way your statement makes sense is if you are an ethnic Chinese living over here among us Roundeye kwai loh devil-heads.

Otherwise, it's gratuitous malice toward your own.

[lentulusgracchus]

Investment money is investment money, they are not gonna import a buncha their foke to come over..

Wrongo. The Chinese did a deal with Encana (don't know what happened to USG permits, think they were pre-stamped in secret knowing there would be opposition), I think during the last of the Bush Administration, to bring two Chinese rigs with 100% Chinese crews over to drill the Overthrust trend, for gas, in the Colorado Rockies. They didn't want any American rigs or crews in the deal. (Encana, before they were bought, were a Canadian company.)

The Overthrust may be dead on economics these days, the deal may not have gone forward, torpedoed by cheap frac gas (note: correct spelling in the industry is "frac" not "frack". The latter spelling is useful, though, as a flag marking an ignorant writer.), but if the Chinese return, I'd expect them once again to attempt importing 100% Chinese crews.

But given their druthers, the point is clear: The Chinese want to work with their own people, and in the States or the Sudan, or in the Panama Canal, they massively prefer to deal with Chinese hands.

[lentulusgracchus]

There are FReepers here who work in the oil industry calling for the repeal.

There was a year-in, year-out campaign by British Petroleum (who owned Sohio, and then Arco and Amoco, giving them 75% of Alaska North Slope production) CEO John "Light Loafers" Browne to get Congress to remove the export ban.

I should imagine it's toast now, for the reason that Obama's photonegative policies will always do the opposite of what generations of American statesmen have tried to accomplish in our interests.

[lentulusgracchus]

Addendum: Browne wanted to sell Alaska crude for higher prices in Asia than he could get in California, where Alaskan and domestic California production supported a lower price structure. Diverting the Alaskan production to Asia would raise West Coast crude prices and jack up BP's revenues.